Typically older brick buildings built during the past two-hundred and fifty (250) years have traditionally combined outer brick walls made of two (2) or more spaced apart brick wall layers. These wall layers are typically connected by cross-turned joining members called “headers”. The spacing between the layers is typically left unfilled or filled with construction rubble or cement. The headers connect the outer brick wall layer to the inner brick wall layer(s). These walls are generally structural, and they often support a significant amount of the entire weight of the building structure. With time, the connection between the headers and the brick wall layers crack and separate or loosen significantly reducing the structural strength of the combined wall layers. Further, the cement between adjacent bricks on the outer brick wall exposed to the weather also cracks and separates from the surfaces of the bricks. Eventually, these walls will deteriorate with age to the extent that the wall or portions thereof will totally fail and collapse causing major structural failure of the building.
The deterioration of the combined outer wall can be greatly accelerated due to deteriorating footers supporting the brick walls. This creates enormous shear forces throughout the height of the combined outer wall causing splitting and separation between bricks. Further, seismic events such as earthquakes can shake apart a deteriorating wall within seconds, or even liquefy the soil supporting the footers, causing immediate catastrophic failure of the walls and potentially the entire building structure.
There exist a number of remedial devices and techniques for fixing and/or repairing these traditional brick wall structures. A number of these methods utilize mechanical wall anchors. In use, an installer drills numerous holes into the combined outer wall layers, and then installs a mechanical anchor in each hole. However, many of the mechanical anchors utilize a wedging or expanding type fastening within the hole, which can cause added damage and stresses to the combined outer wall. Specifically, the mechanical anchors are made of metals that are harder structurally than the more brittle cement and/or brick of the combined outer wall. When the mechanical fasteners are tightened, the expanding fastener can break or crack the surround cement and/or brick around the hole. The anchors are designed for mechanically rejoining the brick wall with the inner brick wall. Additionally, these anchors are stronger than the more brittle cement and/or brick construction units and when the combination of the anchoring device and the brittle construction units are exposed to wall movement, such as would occur during an earthquake or foundation settling, this disparity in strength results in additional fracturing and/or cracking of the brittle construction units.
Further, the use of mechanical anchors is expensive and time consuming for installation purposes. There exists a need for a more economical and faster anchoring device, system and method. Further, there is a need for better ways for anchoring the outer brick wall to the inner brick wall of a combined outer wall without damaging the existing wall structure further during installation.